Nickel

Nickel when pure, is a highly lustrous white metal having a Brinell hardness No: 75 - 95. It is hard, easily polished, ductile and malleable. Nickel like cobalt, is slightly magnetic. Added in small amounts to steel, the metal forms the various nickel-steels which are exceedingly hard and have been used for armour-plating purposes and the alike. In these instances nickel may be as high as 20%. Nickel is the most ubiquitous alloying metal. It enters into a large number of alloys of widely varying characteristics and properties, and it is, indeed, as an alloying metal that it is mostly made use of.